Nearly quarter of council website visits come from mobiles

New research shows that nearly a quarter of council website visits are from mobile devices.

The figures, which were released by ICT management company Socitm, show that 23 per cent per cent of traffic to council websites comes from those using smartphone devices.

The most popular area of the site which was accessed through mobile was its page with information about schools (16 per cent). This was followed by rubbish and recycling (15 per cent), then leisure-related content (10 per cent).

Talking about the data, Martin Greenwood, a representative of Socitm, told localgov.co.uk: “These early results make clear the high level of demand for access to council websites from mobiles and provide new information about the sort of information users expect to be able to access when on the move.”

He also said that the data could provide important information for councils in the future, saying: “Councils need to analyse this information carefully in order to inform development of their websites for mobile.”

The statistics shows the value that mobile marketing can now provide to organisation and companies. It may also encourage councils to send out more SMS messages to users which contain dedicated landing pages to boost visits. Councils may also want to use SMS messaging to collect data or inform local residents about any upcoming events or services in the area.

According to marketingweek.co.uk, figures from the Internet Advertising Bureau’s digital adspend report shows that mobile marketing now accounts for half of digital ad spend growth.